A ground-breaking ceremony has taken place for the latest New York high-rise – 425 Park Avenue designed by Foster + Partners.

In 2012 the company won a high-profile international competition to design the tower in the coveted address in Manhattan – a plot which was home to a building of the same name since demolished.

The UK studio beat off competition from Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid and Richard Rogers to land the design contract.

Lord Norman Foster was present at the ceremony, held to mark the beginning of the vast construction project.

The tower will be conceived as a full office building, the first on Park Avenue for fifty years.

Structurally, the form has been divided into three volumes, each presenting triple-height sky gardens along with terraces offering sweeping views across central park.

Scheduled to open in 2018, the steel-framed structure will become a distinct addition to the city’s ever-growing skyline.

Foster said: “425 park avenue is a significant location. The prime location is Park Avenue itself because it is probably unique in the world in terms of being an urban, modernist creation.

“It has a life, a scale. The first thing that 425 has to do is contribute to that urbanity. In the spirit of those individual buildings – that include Seagram and Lever House – 425 has its own identity. It will contribute to the public domain both at ground level and the wider entity of the city.”